NO WAY! A proposed NFL rule change preventing a player from initiating contact with the crown of his helmet, like Emmitt Smith (above in 2002 against the Eagles’ Troy Vincent) often did, would set running backs up for disaster if approved, writes The Post’s Steve Serby. Photo: AP

NO WAY! A proposed NFL rule change preventing a player from initiating contact with the crown of his helmet, like Emmitt Smith (above in 2002 against the Eagles’ Troy Vincent) often did, would set running backs up for disaster if approved, writes The Post’s Steve Serby. (AP)

The Nfl is running scared.

And if the league doesn’t want its running backs running scared, and its fawning fans frustrated again by overofficiousness, a mindless, misguided rule change must be voted down next week when the owners convene in Phoenix.

The NFL, desperate to stiff-arm the burgeoning number of concussion-driven lawsuits from former players, is mulling a fumble from which running backs would never recover.

The most alarming of the six rules changes proposed by the NFL’s Competition Committee reads as follows: “Player safety: Initiating contact with the crown of the helmet is a foul if the runner or tackler delivers a forceable blow against his opponent when both players are outside the tackle box.”

Use your head, NFL!

You’ve changed the game we love enough already.

What this latest brainstorm means is the NFL, which has bent over backward protecting defenseless receivers, is now protecting sadistic linebackers and their defensive brethren by rendering the running back virtually defenseless.

It’s a shame Tiny Tim is no longer with us to tiptoe through the tulips with a football under his arm.

NFL running backs are already an endangered species, with a career expectancy of 2.57 years, according to the NFL Players Association. Try to picture what would happen to, say, David Wilson, should he be handcuffed and handicapped this way against, say, Ndamukong Suh.

There’s no telling what kind of punishment Sam Huff would have doled out to the great Jim Brown, or Jim Taylor, if he knew they had to curtail their lifelong instincts and turn cautious for fear of the legal consequences.

Emmitt Smith was right on for railing against the idea’s lunacy, and there are certain to be a stable of others.

“If I’m a running back and I’m running into a linebacker, you’re telling me I have to keep my head up so he can take my chin off?’’ Smith told Dallas radio station 105.3 The Fan. “You’ve absolutely lost your mind.’’

Even Adrian Peterson, whose take-no-prisoners fury would have brought a smile to the face of the great Walter Payton, would be at risk.

Last I checked, the running back’s very existence is predicated on plowing forward for the longest yard, or inch. How can he possibly expected not to lower his head seeking that longest yard, or inch? I would think this might be good news for turtles. The rule, which will require 24 of 32 votes to pass, would apply to players on both sides of the ball when contact is made outside the tackle box.

There has been enough confusion among NFL zebras — not to mention players and fans — about what constitutes throwing a flag, and here comes another example of overofficious poppycock that is sure to delay games unnecessarily,.

No one wants to watch flag football.

For the poor old gladiators stricken with post-concussion syndrome, to the widows who have endured the tragic consequences of the sport, the NFL has been late to the better-safe-than-sorry party. Better late than never, to be sure. But if the NFL keeps bending over too far backward for better-too-safe-than-sorry, there will come a point when we don’t recognize the game. The powers-that-be are walking a treacherous tightrope between trying not to lose in the courtroom and trying to continue winning in the court of public opinion with a game that has become America’s addiction.